School to pay pupils £300 each if they do well in exams

Pupils are to be paid up to £300 each by an inner-city comprehensive if they do well in their exams and stay at school.

St George Community College in Bristol has assessed each student who will sit GCSEs this summer and has given them targets in up to 10 subjects. Pupils will be rewarded with £10 for every target grade they reach. If every target is met, the pupil will receive a £50 bonus . In addition, students will receive £150 if they remain in education after taking their GCSEs.

Teachers' unions said the plan would bring commercialism into the classroom and was an improper use of public money. The scheme would teach children to value money more than education. The money will come from a £30,000 fund of private donations, sponsorship and a government grant through the New Deal for Communities scheme.

St George has languished near the bottom of exam league tables for the past few years. Last summer, only 22 per cent of pupils achieved five good GCSE passes, compared with 50 per cent nationally. Eight per cent of its pupils left school with no exam passes at all.

St George is to be relaunched as a City Academy next year. It will reopen as a state-funded independent school sponsored by Bristol City Football Club and the University of the West of England.

Ray Priest, the headteacher, hopes the scheme will encourage his pupils to work hard and raise their aspirations. The decision to launch the scheme had come from the local community, not the school, showing that parents wanted to use the government grant to reward their children, he added.

He said: "It's all about personal targets. We are not trying to bribe kids to stay in school but to fulfil their aims.

"For generations there have been prizes for doing well at school so it's not a new concept. It's the same principle of work hard and get rewards and it reflects the real world.

"It is controversial but at the end of the day if this incentive gets one person to achieve better grades, it's worth it."

Satwant Kaur, 15, agreed it would make pupils work harder. "Some people work hard anyway and it's a bonus for them but others will be driven to do more," she said. Aaron Goodwin, 15, who plans to do A-levels in maths, physics, business studies and IT, said he would put the money towards revision books. He said: "It's encouraging people who do not find academic work very easy."

But Nigel de Gruchy, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, said the scheme was designed purely to meet league table targets. "I think it's sending the wrong message in respect of values," he said.

"There's enough commercialism in the world already. It's an abuse of public money to offer young people with lots of abilities money for their skills."